When Fact Checkers End Up Confirming Conspiracy Theories

I came across a post about Covid deaths in England on Facebook the other day. It was tagged with a fact check, claiming the information was misleading. However, the title of the fact check article was in many ways more alarming than the original post. It read: "Fact Check: High Vaccination Rate Explains Why 94% Of English COVID Deaths Are Among Fully Vaccinated -- Numbers Only Part Of Full Story"

For the vast majority of people who rarely read beyond the title and ingress of a story, this title merely confirms that vaccines are linked to a death rate of 94%. It also tells us to disregard these numbers and focus on the story, whatever that may be.

If this wasn't bad enough, the article is full of intellectual gymnastics that makes it hard to figure out why exactly the horrible number is nothing to worry about. We are for instance told that if 100% of people were vaccinated for a disease, we would have a death rate of 100% among vaccinated people for that disease. But how does this logic go for a vaccination rate of say 94%? If the vaccine was effective, close to 100% of deaths should be in the 6% who remained unvaccinated.

Yet, they manage to conclude that even at 94% of deaths among the vaccinated, the vaccine can be considered effective. That requires some seriously convoluted thinking, and a whole lot of cognitive dissonance. So much so that I decided to post a link to the article on my Facebook wall.

Since the article is a fact check piece, Facebook slammed no warning on it. But I got a Facebook info box about Covid vaccine resources. Facebook is apparently still involved in the snake oil sales racket.

By Facebook, Inc. - http://en.facebookbrand.com, Public Domain, Link